Keeper of The Lost Cities: Book 9: Showdown

Chapter 29 - Sophie's POV

When we do reach the Wanderling Woods, all of us have to shield our eyes from the setting sun - but Grady just runs off in the direction of the Wanderlings. We all follow him, none of knowing where we're going or what we're looking for.

We don't know until we stop in front of a big tree that isn't big or a tree anymore.

Kenric's Wanderling is neither majestic nor beautiful - it doesn't stand tall or have those long branches with beautiful blossoms.

No, the tree is shriveled and sick - nothing but a minimal fraction of what it once was before. Gnomes and alchemists are carefully extracting the tree, quietly using elixirs and what not to remove the tree from its place atop a hill.

"What are they doing?" Linh mutters under her breath.

"We had to extract the tree," Councillor Bronte comes up to us and says. "It was too sick and we didn't want to risk the... poison bleeding through the roots and contaminating the rest of the Wanderlings. One-" he looks away and clears his throat. "One is enough."

Fitz mutters and says that he's going to hail the others, but I don't hear him as Bronte's words echo through my head.

We had to extract the tree.

It was too sick.

"The Panakes Blossoms didn't work?" I manage to stumble out. "I-they were supposed to cure any illness any-"

"We tried them in every possible medium, with every possible ingredient. Not a single thing worked."

"So Kenric's dead." my voice is hollow. "Really gone."

Bronte shakes his head so vigorously that I think he's convincing himself more than me. "No! We can find some more of his DNA, I'm sure, and we can make another seed. We can do something. Maybe there is something we can salvage from this tree. There is something we can do." '

I push past him and march over to Kesler. There are dark circles around his eyes, betraying his sleepless nights. I can't even imagine the state Juline's in. "Why didn't the Panakes Blossoms work?"

Kesler gives me a sad smile. "It's good to see you too, Sophie."

I flinch. "Sorry, I-"

Kesler waves me off. "It's fine. I'm going to assume the Panakes Blossoms didn't work because of the nuclear radiation in the... poison."

"The radiation was eating away at everything that touched it," realization slowly dawns on me. "Nothing would have worked on it. Even if we did find an antidote."

Kesler nods sadly.

"We found something!" Stina waves something in the air form near what was once the roots of the Wanderling.

A piece of gold paper, with Lady Gisela's recognizable cursive stares back at us - it's like she's mocking us.

The cure was in Elysium - a shame you'll never find it.

Fitz is pale, as if he was drained of all the blood in his body. Tam stares at the paper like the only thing he wants to do is stab a knife through it again and again and again.

I scream in frustration and march over to god-knows-where.

I wander through the Wanderling Woods until I come upon my Wanderling. It is no longer small or insignificant - in fact, it stands almost as tall as Dex's.

Emphasis on almost.

There are vibrant gold flowers, each glowing with a center of a deep mahogany-ish-brown. They remind me of hibiscus flowers. Equally vivid red leaves decorate the rest of the tree - I suppose the red comes from my Inflicting.